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tip./ %WW Ms. Linda Turkatte LTR*003/TXTKEH March 25 , 1993 Page: 10 the pool and include Union Oil, an almost 25 year operator of the site, as a potential responsible party. As you will recall, this letter requests that you identify all prior operators of the tanks. After the last operators ceased their operations, the tanks were immediately removed. Thus, the contamination present must have occurred sometime during the one or all of the operations of the lessees . Such identification as a potential responsible party does not mean that Union Oil or other operators must be forever responsible for the site. Instead, under Zands your agency may exercise its regulatory power to state that enough preliminary evidence has been provided to establish a relationship with the tanks and a possibility for release during the 24 years of Union Oil ' s operations or during the other lessees' operations. Identification of a potential responsible party does not impute total liability. In accordance with Zands, Union Oil could provide evidence that no release occurred during its lease or the property and that such release was subsequent to its tenure as lessee. Secondly, while San Joaquin County received funds through subchapter IX, this funding does not preclude your ability to utilize the definitions in subchapter VII if you chose to do so. Subchapter IX does not stand alone, it is an integral part of the RCRA statutory framework, as is subchapter VII. Subchapter VII as the "Miscellaneous" subchapter regulates far more than citizen suits, such as employee protection, public participation, imminent F� hazardous, training projects, and labor standards. If deemed appropriate, neither the state of local agency are precluded from utilizing the citizen suit provision. Any "person" may bring a suit including "State, municipality, commission, political subdivision of a state of other interstate body" 42 U.S.C. section 9003, a "person entitled to bring a section 6972 action has been expanded to include the US EPA, US v. Midwest Solvent Recovery, Inc. 484 F.Supp. 138 (1980) . Thus, we believe your agency has an obligation to bring all potential responsible parties to the table to address their respective obligations for release from the underground tanks. The court' s interpretation of RCRA in Zands simply provides you with more authority to do so.